On the Charts: Lil Wayne Returns to Number One With ‘Tha Carter V’

A years-long delay did little to quell the demand for Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter V as the rapper’s latest album debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 thanks to the second-best opening-week streaming numbers ever.

Tha Carter V, bound in contractual red tape for years as Lil Wayne worked out his departure from Cash Money, sold 480,000 total copies to open atop the Billboard 200, the rapper’s fourth Number One album, Billboard reports.

The vast majority of Tha Carter V‘s total, 325,000 copies, came from streaming equivalent albums (SEAs), with the album accumulating over 433 million on-demand audio streams in its first week of release; only Drake’s Scorpion generated more one-week on-demand streams in charts history. Tha Carter V also sold 141,000 “traditional” copies.

What promised to be a heated battle for Number One between Lil Wayne and Kanye West vanished suddenly when the latter failed to release his Yandhi on September 29th. However, there was no shortage of new releases in the Top 10, even as Lil Wayne ran away with the top spot.

Logic’s YSIV opened at Number Two and 167,000 total copies, the rapper’s second straight Number Two-debuting album. At Number Three, Cher tied her best Billboard 200 debut of her long career as the singer’s ABBA covers album Dancing Queen sold 153,000 copies, a total helped in part by a package that paired tickets to Cher’s upcoming tour with a complimentary copy of the LP.

Two more new releases impacted the Top 10: Rapper Kevin Gates’ Luca Brasi 3 started at Number Four with 78,000 total copies while Tom Petty’s expansive box set An American Treasure debuted at Number Nine and 34,000 copies.

Drake’s Scorpion led this week’s field of returnees at Number Five, followed by Eminem’s Kamikaze at Number Six, Travis Scott’s Astroworld at Number Seven and Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys at Number Eight. XXXTentacion’s ? closed out the Top 10 at Number 10.

Next week’s Top 10 should see another major shakeup as a handful of high-profile new releases – including the Lady Gaga-led A Star Is Born soundtrack, Eric Church’s Desperate Man, Twenty One Pilots’ Trench and Steve Perry’s comeback LP Traces – all invade the Billboard 200.